The Personal

In How to Know God, I talked about the Personal mode of experiencing. Lets explore that a little more deeply.

In the west the majority of people believe in angels. Yet if someone were to say they see them, they’re liable to be considered nuts. Even some spiritual teachers relegate such things to a forgone Mythic era. People are permitted to write poetry or music about it, as long as it stays “creative.” Belief is safe but real is too big a stretch.

Much of the traditional literature describing experiences in the Personal mode has been seen by the Western mind as myths and fairy stories. I’ll fully agree that there is a ton of nonsense and beliefs around this. Core to this is not understanding the nature of the mode. Laws of nature/energy beings/ devata live as energy. Energy does not have a specific form until it’s expressed materially as particles. As physics would suggest, energy is more a cloud of possibility. In this case, intelligent possibility. Our attention and expectations and how the energy being wishes to relate are what determine how they are perceived. For example, angels only have wings if you want or expect them to. Why would a non-physical being need wings? But if that makes them familiar, that’s how you’re likely to see them. The point of form is to make it easier to relate. But one must be careful not to confuse the form for the truth. Beauty may be truth but it is the essence of beauty that speaks the truth, the essence of form that reveals knowledge. Our personal preferences are not the truth.

If you don’t understand why someone would want to experience a deva, consider the benefit of a conversation with a law of nature. The Irish call them Elementals. Would it not be easier to understand the weather if you could speak to the wind? Or find out what’s wrong with your plant. What if you could smooth a bumpy plane ride with an inquiry? Or protect your house from a storm or fire?

And if you think such experiences are completely foreign, we all have experiences of these energetic values of creation. We call them feelings and emotions. This intimacy is why it’s called “Personal.”

Given that these beings operate on the level of energy and emotions, it may not be a surprise that household devas that spend more time with people have more attitude. (laughs) How do you feel about your home and environment? Is it a place of peace and happiness? Or disappointment and regret? A little mixed? It’s amazing what a little gratitude can do for our environment. No need to believe anything but good feelings can help everyone feel and work better. Bad feelings are their version of smog. Even the appliances can last longer.

Given that everything that happens is being done from a Personal perspective, we can well imagine that there are far more energy beings than there are human beings. This can be directly experienced. In fact, one of the tricks is turning the Personal mode off to reduce the flood of information. Happily this is straightforward, much like we might shift our eyesight from near to far.

At its highest levels, the Personal is a direct, personal relationship with God as I touched on in How to Know God. This can be the most profound and intimate relationship we’ve ever experienced. In fact, this is one of the reasons there’s a process to get there. Such a relationship requires we’re able to handle levels of energy, love and happiness that would be far too much for the average person. Thus it is typical to step up through a progressive series of raptures to get used to the energy and thence to be able to meet God.

7 Responses to The Personal

“Such a relationship requires we’re able to handle levels of energy, love and happiness that would be far too much for the average person. Thus it is typical to step up through a progressive series of raptures to get used to the energy and thence to be able to meet God.”

I believe this is what is happening in this world, the ‘physical’ aspect is being ‘warmed up’ gradually as to not get scolded by the wonderful hot bath =)

I have been pondering a metaphor for our emotion. I think it´s like the elements, earth, air, water, fire and space. In essence they are the same, even if they can be experienced very differently, like our emotion. Even if one element of emotion can be more evident at times all five elements are always included in this world.

I just can´t decide if this is a holistic metaphor or if it´s just making the view of emotion complicated. Thoughts?

Hi Raz
Right. In Sanskrit the word Tapas is often thought to mean austerities. But it means warming up. We warm things up to cleanse and better support awareness. Raise the energy or resolution we could say.

Well, emotions are one way we experience energy. From the Sankhya perspective, the essence of the senses give rise to their objects, the 5 elements or qualities. (their 8 groupings correspond to the 8 groups of the older style periodic table of elements)
I review Sankhya here:http://davidya.ca/2009/06/21/qualities-and-quantities-of-being/

But yes, we may classify different emotions but they’re all variations on an underlying value. I’ve referred here to how, if you follow a feeling back to its source, it always comes to the same place. In anger is fear, and in fear peace (or lively peace = happiness). From another angle, all is derived from love so all feelings can be seen to arise from love though they may be appreciated quite differently. The difference is where you’re experiencing from.